National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard fired two senior officials at the National Intelligence Council after it has released a report in which it is concluded that the Venezuelan government will probably not lead the activities of Tren de Aragua, in stark contrast with the countless claims by President Donald Trump.
Trump has repeatedly claimed, while he does not provide evidence that Venezuela somehow leads the actions of the street gang. Trump also called on the Aragua to justify the convocation of the Alien Enemies Act shortly after he took office, leaning on the law of 1798 to deport people without the correct process.
Michael Collins, the acting chairman of the National Intelligence Council, and deputy Maria Langan-Riekhof were fired on Tuesday, a source told CNN. It is unclear what role, if present, Collins and Langan-Riekhof played when producing the analysis.
The dismissals come a week after an intelligence assessment produced by the office of the director of the National Intelligence
The existence of that partially declassified assessment was first reported by the Washington Post.
An unnamed senior Trump officer spun the fired to Fox News as an attempt to block the 'politicization of intelligence'. But their intention is clearly the opposite, Jonathan Panikoff, the former deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East, wrote on X.
“I have worked for five years on the NIC, I can personally testify that the org is the heartbeat of apolitical American all-source analysis, which traditionally draws the best of the ICs analysts together to tackle and produce about the most difficult problems,” he said.
“Everything that reduces its independence because policymakers do not like the independent conclusions that it reaches is the definition of politicization they decipher,” he added. “Mike and Maria are incredible leaders and IC professionals, not political actors.”
